Important Americana: Silver, Chinese Export, and Prints

Important Americana: Silver, Chinese Export, and Prints

View full screen - View 1 of Lot 449. A Rare and Large Chinese Export Famille-rose 'Figures' Fishbowl, Qing Dynasty, Yongzheng Period | 清雍正  粉彩描金人物故事圖大缸.

A Rare and Large Chinese Export Famille-rose 'Figures' Fishbowl, Qing Dynasty, Yongzheng Period | 清雍正 粉彩描金人物故事圖大缸

Lot Closed

January 22, 06:49 PM GMT

Estimate

15,000 - 25,000 USD

Lot Details

Description

A Rare and Large Chinese Export Famille-rose 'Figures' Fishbowl

Qing Dynasty, Yongzheng Period

清雍正 粉彩描金人物故事圖大缸


stoutly potted with wide bulbous body rising to an everted lip, set with applied biscuit lion-mask handles, one side of the exterior richly painted with female figures in a chamber with another lady being pursued by a military official, the reverse with scholars reading and figures tending to a horse, the interior decorated with fish swimming amongst water plants 

width across handles 25 1/4 in.; 64.2 cm

Most often seen with bucolic scenes depicting birds and blossoming flowers, Chinese export fishbowls depicting figural subjects are extremely rare. Compare a pair of fishbowls, the exterior decorated with the 'Generals of the Yang family', or Yang Jia Jiang, narrative, formerly in the collection of Sir Henry Price (1877-1963) and sold in our London rooms, November 22nd, 2000, lot P310. Other examples of Chinese export fishbowls from the Yongzheng period painted with figures include a well published example decorated on the exterior with a continuous scene of porcelain production. One example is in the collection of Kunstmuseum Den Haag, Hague, and is illustrated in Beatrice Jansen, Chinese Ceramiek, Lochem, 1976, cat. no. 321. Another previously unrecorded example of the same type and possibly the pair to the aforementioned example, was with Cohen & Cohen, London.